This is the first morning of our five-day Sashin, and I feel good to be sitting with everyone. Later, during the weekend, more people will join us. But I think that for the whole Sashin, pretty much for these three days, the people that are here will stay here, pretty constant. And then later, some more people will join us for the weekend. So that feels pretty good. I just want to today to go over some fundamentals of our practice and remind us of what we're doing and set a tone for Sashi.

[01:35]

This practice, as you know and as I've talked about before, is called various things, but I want to talk about it as Jiju-Yu Samadhi, Jiju-Yu Zamai, Self-Joyous Samadhi or self-fulfilling samadhi, where you just become you. It's not the practice to gain something, but just the practice to fulfill what you already are. And our zazen is zazen which goes beyond thinking and emotion.

[03:01]

In order to really practice true zazen, or zazen in its true sense, we have to practice beyond thinking and beyond emotion. And as we progress in time, so to speak, through days, our desires will become deeper. Thinking mind will not be such an obstacle, and emotion will not be such an obstacle, hopefully.

[04:07]

Thought and emotion are always with us, always in our feelings and mind. But it's necessary in zazen to go beyond, so to speak, go beyond thought and emotion. Even though emotion and thought are present, they don't hinder zazen. If we try to get rid of our thoughts, that's just adding more thoughts to our thoughts. And if we try to get rid of emotion, It's like adding more emotion to our emotion. You may get very emotional about trying to get rid of your emotion. But in the midst of thought and emotion, we have to find ourself, find our original face.

[05:20]

And when we find our original face, not find, but abide in, maybe better, then emotion, thought, does not become a hindrance. And we can watch our thinking mind and watch our emotions as someone said, as the scenery of our life. Emotion and thought we can watch as the scenery of our life. You can just watch it go by, like you're on a train. When some thought comes up, when some emotion comes up, just let it come up and let it go.

[06:40]

Whatever comes up is not a hindrance. So, when we talk about hindrance, one of the biggest hindrance One of the biggest hindrances is anticipation. Anticipation is when we're no longer living in the present. You may have anticipation in the present, but the thing that you're anticipating is not in the present. What's in the present is just anticipation. So if you have some feeling like anticipation, which means to think about the future, what you're thinking about is not in the present.

[07:54]

The anticipation is in the present. But your life is not in the present. True life is not present. So, anticipation is one of the most difficult feelings or emotions or thoughts to deal with in seishin. It's what says to us, well, only four more days to go, or only five minutes to go. If the junco walks by one more time, and it will only be 10 minutes before the bell, according to the way I calculate, Or thinking about the past.

[09:10]

That's not anticipation, that's longing, kind of reminiscence, you know, or longing about the past. In retrospect, we have a lot of thoughts in retrospect, but Sometimes they're helpful. I'm not saying that thoughts about past and future are wrong. Of course, they're helpful and necessary. But in Sashin, in this activity, they're not necessary. So this Samadhi, Samadhi power is not something that's produced. Its power is always there, but it's veiled by emotion-thought.

[10:14]

And when emotion-thought is no longer an obstacle, then our unobstructed face comes forward, shines very brilliantly. And when that comes forward, when our nature shines brilliantly, then everything else shines brilliantly around us. Interesting thing is that when we see the world around us shining, it's because we're shining.

[11:20]

So in this kind of absence of covering, our mind is very much like a mirror and reflects. And not only does our mind reflect, but our mind is reflected back, because everything else is a mirror as well. So during the Sashin, our effort to make the effort to remove coverings, thought coverings and emotion coverings. Thought-emotion is kind of one term.

[12:29]

Emotion-thought coverings. Not by trying to get rid of them, but by making the effort to be present. our effort should not be in trying to get rid of something. That's not, that takes too much shoveling and the hole fills up with sand as you keep shoveling. To just make our positive effort and when we make our positive effort it's really, there's really Not a lot of effort. So our effort is not to get someplace, but just to make our offering continuously. Our activity is like an offering.

[13:32]

You have nothing. Two legs, two arms, torso, body, head, so to speak. Hands and feet. But even they don't belong to you. Actually, nothing belongs to us personally. So, We just make this offering of ourself, so to speak. And our offering is to be as present

[14:39]

as possible. Our offering is to just be completely present. This sasheen is to experience or to participate in each moment to participate in each moment as fully as possible. Just completely be present. There's no other requirement. Well, there are some rules, but there's really no other requirement except to be present moment after moment after moment in a succession of now, [...] now moments.

[16:03]

So the best way to collect your mind, body and mind, to bring body and mind together is just pay attention to your body. to know exactly what your body is doing every moment. And one side of that is to keep track. And the other side is to do something very positive. So passive side is to keep track of what your body is doing on each moment. And the positive side is to put effort into what you want your body to do. So if you want to sit up straight, straight as possible. There's nothing else to do. There's five days of nothing else to do but sit up straight.

[17:07]

So you can really get into your body, so to speak. put a lot of effort into sitting up straight. You may have a sore back. You know, when we begin this Sashin, when we come from various postures, we hold ourselves, each one of us, in a certain posture, depending on what kind of circumstances we come up against and how we respond to those circumstances. The way we respond to circumstances gives us a certain posture or a response forms our posture. So we enter into relationship with a certain kind of posture.

[18:11]

And those postures become fixed at some point. And we should recognize what our habitual postures are, how we approach and how we relate with things, circumstances, through our postures. And when we come into the zendo, we don't have a fixed posture, or we give up all those defensive postures, and assume a posture which is without defenses, just open, completely open. And it takes time, a little bit of time, to let go of our defensive postures and just assume a completely open, upright, full-filled posture, fully-filled posture, a posture that can accept any circumstance without

[19:40]

taking a defensive attitude. But you'll notice that in our zazen, even in our zazen, we take defensive attitudes. We defend ourselves from pain, and we defend ourselves from thinking, thoughts, and feelings. But we can't do that for very long. We can do it for a while, but we can't do it for very long because we break down. If we set up a defense against pain, the pain will win. Pain will win and break us down. If we set up a defense against emotion, or thought will start getting very cranky and plaintive and short-tempered and critical.

[21:09]

So our task, as we go through this teaching, is to drop it. Drop everything. Let go of defense against pain, let go of defense against emotion, and defense against thought. And the best way to do that is to just completely follow the schedule. When it's time to sit zazen, don't wait five minutes after.

[22:21]

Don't come into zendo five minutes later. Just be there. Be on time. Because Time, everything is, all of our activity is taking place in time. If we resist time, we become a victim of time. But if you go with time completely, then there's no time. Time disappears. Time is not a hindrance. Time is only a hindrance when we resist it. And that gets us back to anticipation again. So as soon as we start having trouble with time, then we become out of time.

[23:34]

As soon as you start thinking about times, or trying to escape from time, or trying to create a different kind of time for yourself, some special kind of time for yourself, then you're no longer in time. And you get caught in the gears. Your finger gets caught in the machinery. So, in order to... The schedule is a great advantage and help to us in Sashim. The reason we have a schedule is to help us. If it didn't help us, we should get rid of it. But, why we have a schedule is to help us to get rid of our discriminating

[24:36]

tendencies. The only way you can really do Sashin is to get rid of your... drop your discriminating mind. You know, you want to do... your mind, as soon as it gets a little bit discriminating, You know, as soon as you would like to have, you come to the conclusion that you would like to have things a little different way, or do something a little different, that's an opening for your discriminating mind. And as soon as you take that advantage, then it gets bigger and bigger. And pretty soon, discriminating mind is taking over. And you're having all kinds of trouble. But you think that it's the schedule that's wrong. So you project it on something outside of yourself.

[25:41]

This is a very common problem. So it's really necessary to just completely throw yourself into Sashi. without leaving anything out. That's why we don't make phone calls, and we don't read books or do something on our own. Then if we start doing that, we just fall into ordinary perception, ordinary mind. So in a way, Satsang is like taking a ride on a train on the tracks. You don't have to look at the tracks. If you try and get off the train in some way, you get really hurt.

[26:50]

So stay on the train and listen to the rhythm. Stay with the rhythm. As long as you stay with the rhythm, you may have problems, but problems will not become a hindrance. We will all have problems, it's a machine. But the problems shouldn't become a hindrance. And at some point, you'll be able to see how the problems, how your problems are actually an aid, help to you. So, the problem that you have in Sashim is something to work with, something that you can, something very concrete for you to get a hold of and work with, since you don't have anything else. So Sushin is a real opportunity for us to practice continuous practice all around the clock.

[28:10]

Five days of continuous practice where every activity is right now. No need to think about the future. It's all taken care of. The schedules It's just one activity after the other. Just relax in it. Just flow with it. So each activity has its own little problems, you know. If you're ringing the bell for every zazen, then you have a problem, a little problem. But that's, you may wonder, well is it time for me to hit the bell now? If I hit it too late, people will be mad at me. So there's only one thing to do, and that's to

[29:20]

wholeheartedly do whatever it is that you're doing. Just completely, don't be outside of your activity. As soon as you step outside of your activity, you should step right back in. And you will. You'll be stepping outside of your activity with various anxieties and thoughts and discriminations. But as seishin gets deeper and deeper, it will help you to become more and more present, more and more focused, and more and more present. And your difficulties will help you. When we do Zazen, just do Zazen completely without thinking about it.

[30:38]

Just get in the seat, sit down, practice. When it's time for Kinhin, forget all about Zazen and just do Kinhin completely. When kinhen is over, just sit down, do zazen again. When it's time to do service, just hold the sutra card and chant the sutra without thinking about anything. What does this mean? Don't think about what does this mean. When it's time to eat, Just eating samadhi. Completely eating. Just completely eating. Just completely washing the bowls.

[31:45]

Don't look around when you eat. Just focus on eating. And there are ways, when we eat, to focus. You know, when you hold the bowl, hold it up here, so that your mind is up here. Sometimes, you know, we eat like this, and our mind drops down here. So, if you sit like this, then you can maintain, still maintain your posture. then your awareness is very different. You have a more dignified way of eating and creates a more mindful attitude. So to maintain that kind of mindfulness continually is pretty difficult.

[32:51]

But there's nothing to do else, nothing else to do but bringing our mind back, bringing it continually back to the present, waking up to the present, moment by moment. That's our GJU Samadhi, continually waking up to the moment, coming back to now. So everything that we do should be focused in that way. When you take a break, break is break samadhi. It's not a break from sasheen. You can't take a break from sasheen. It's resting, walking, sitting down. If you have a cup of coffee, get your coffee, sit down and drink it. Don't walk around with a cup of coffee in your hand. So to maintain that mindfulness in every activity, when you go to the bathroom, pay attention to what you're doing.

[34:24]

If you have to talk, be mindful that you're talking, and know when to begin and when to stop, and how Not add anything extra. And what tone of voice are you using? How loud is it? How soft is it? When you're ringing the bells during service, to not just be hitting something, The sound of the bell is the sound of your satyam. If you walk in the door after everybody else is seated, to be aware that your entrance changes the atmosphere of the zinda.

[35:30]

As you open the door and walk into the zendo, when everybody's sitting, it changes the atmosphere of the zendo. If you get up to carry the stick, it changes the atmosphere of the zendo. So, to be aware of how your feet are being placed on the floor. As I say many times, don't walk on your heels in the zendo. That's mindless walking. See it, you know, mindlessly. When we walk normally, we put our heels down first. But in the Zendo, like this. So it's almost, it's not like stalking, but it's careful walking, so that you're not creating a walking atmosphere in the Zendo. So when you serve, or when you carry the stick, walk mindfully and know what kind of change you're creating in the atmosphere.

[36:44]

At least be aware of what kind of change you're creating in the atmosphere when you walk. And when we bow, to bow in the present. Still, as much as I talk about it, we're bowing in the past, in the future. But not everyone knows how to bow in the present. When you bow to somebody, bow with someone. When we're bowing together, we bow with each other, not at each other. But so often we just bow at each other, especially during serving. During serving, a lot of times the servers are hasty because they want to... they're anticipating, actually.

[37:54]

And so they bow in a superficial way, and the server will go like this, and the other person just... like that, you know? Happens all the time. Where did you go? What are we doing? What's going on here? Why are we doing this? You know? So when you bow, you meet each other. Then you come back up. It doesn't have to be long, but that meeting has to take place. There are several ways to bow.

[38:57]

One way is you put your hands together like this, and the palms of your hands are together, flat together, and your thumbs are together. This is not right. And that's not right. Sometimes people bow like this. altogether. Sometimes you can bow without making your hands flat. Making your hands flat is the way you bow to things, or if you're serving, something like that. But if you're bowing to your teacher or to each other in a more intimate way, you don't have to put... you can hold your hands a little looser. Not quite so tight. This is called no-mind bow.

[40:07]

Bow of no-mind. And sometimes each finger represents something. On your right hand, the thumb is Buddha, Bodhisattva, Pracheka Buddha, Sravaka, and Devas. And this side, in the left hand, the thumb is humans, fighting demons. These are the six worlds, Buddhas and the six worlds, except they only have five fingers. I'll explain that. Humans, fighting demons, animals, general world, world of hungry ghosts, and the world, the hell world.

[41:12]

So when you bring your palms together, your fingers together, they correspond, these Buddhas and Bodhisattvas correspond to the six worlds. so that there's a Buddha in each world, in each realm. So, Buddha, Buddhas and human beings, when you put your sums together, Buddhas and human beings are not different. And bodhisattvas and fighting demons are one. Pracheka Buddha's and animal world is one. And Shravaka's and hungry ghosts are one. And heaven and hell, heavenly beings and hell are one.

[42:21]

So, all sides are reconciled in the vow. Everything is reconciled in the vow. So actually this is a bow of no-mind emptiness Non-discriminating mind The bow is not just some act, but it is just an act But for us is very important reality, a very important practice of reality. All polarities meet in this vow.

[43:25]

which is no different than zazen. When you sit zazen, all polarities meet in zazen and are reconciled. So, zazen is sitting, eating, walking, sleeping, working. When you work, that same mind. It's wonderful working during Sashi when you build up a wonderful Samadhi, not build up, but Samadhi is there and you can just concentrate on what you're doing without anticipating, without thinking about the future. and everything is taking care of itself.

[44:33]

Everything is taken care of wonderfully, if you just let it happen. So, It's necessary to have very strong faith in practice, but you can't get that faith except through practice itself. But without anticipating or wanting anything, to just put yourself completely into what you're doing without any anticipation or thought of reward or thought of what do I get out of this.

[45:38]

Everything will just take care of itself naturally and wonderfully. Main thing is don't interfere

[45:57]

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